NEW YORK: Sawyer from Rethink Robotics is the latest human-friendly robot, designed to perform detailed tasks, including manufacturing of electronic components.
The new robot could be used to test circuit boards, handle hazardous materials, maintain machines and perform other work that is impractical using human beings or traditional robots.
Sawyer is designed much like an arm, except this robotic limb is able to turn and bend along seven joints, as it reaches more than 40 inches. A “face” is also displayed on a tablet-like appendage. The robotic device, designed for use by manufacturers, weighs just 42 pounds without its pedestal, and plugs into a standard electrical outlet.
Rethink Robotics designed Sawyer as an improvement over their previous robot model, Baxter.
“Like Baxter, Sawyer is powered by the industry’s best and most intuitive software platform, Intera. It features the same iconic “face” screen (with a refreshed and even more expressive design) that helps it communicate with co-workers, along with the train-by-demonstration user interface that revolutionized how robots can be deployed on factory floors,” Rethink Robotics wrote on its Web site.
